Step 1: What you need

tools

* wire cutters/strippers or an old pair of scissors
* small flat head screw driver

parts

* an old phone charger
* a couple of 150ohm resistors
* a couple of LEDs
* a chocblock
* something to make the base with; we now use sections of old carpet tube but we've used cans and plastic bottles before.
* a 20cm length of stiff but bendable wire
* (optional) 3 shorter lengths of wire for making legs
* some sellotape
* some 200gsm paper for the shade, about 30x40cm is good, a little less than a3.

Step 2: (optional) solder leds onto resistors

If you already have the LEDs soldered onto resisters from one of our kits, you can skip this step.

Otherwise, you can work out what size resister to use with Ohm's law. V = IR. Let's work out what resistor size we need for an LED with a forward voltage of 2.5V and a current use of 20mA. The phone charger provides around 5V, but can vary so if you have a multimeter you can test it.

Subtract the forward voltage from the phone charger supply to get the voltage over the resistor = 2.5V. Then work out R = V/I = 2.5V / 20mA = 125Ohms.

Alternatively

It often works to just put the LEDs in series, so that the voltage is divided across them both. To do this, twist together the long leg of one LED with the short leg of the other, then test with the phone charger and check that they are not too bright or too dim.

I used some medium weight paper. About 150gsm. The thicker the paper the less light will show through. I've also just tried cutting holes in the paper - check the flickr gallery.Good luck in your first instructable! I'm honoured to be your first!!

You can get LEDs like that online; they've managed to cram five normal LED dies into a single package, for five times the brightness of a regular LED (at five times the current, naturally). They'd be excellent for a lamp like this, since they also illuminate a wider angle than a normal super-bright LED does.